Matt Sexton of Eckerd College Triton Kiteboarding Club had an idea. He wanted to have a kiting competition among kiters from various colleges. Florida has lots of venues for such a thing but as it was planned for Spring Break, why not have it on Key West? Eckerd College has a tradition of sending leaders out into the world to delve into things marine, here's just one more case.

So, time to mount up and head off to Cayo Hueso or Bone Island.
Photo from 1880's and "The Forgotten Frontier" by Arva Moore Parks

He started making plans, pulling together resources and assistance from The Kitehouse and X-RATED KITEBOARDING among other sponsors. So with hard work it came together and riders from about six colleges joined in. There are likely to be more next year. Mother nature wasn't to be left out and catered 20 kt. and higher incredible sideshore winds for virtually the entire week of riding. There were freestyle and slider competitions through the week for the college folks and on the weekend, pro riders and non-students were allowed to enter the comp. for the boardercross as well.

The launch. Click photo for full sized image.

This may be the first collegiate kiteboarding competition, certainly in Florida, perhaps anywhere. So, that gives it something in common with other new sports in years past. A look at some of those other sports will be tossed out throughout the article for contrast.

The collegiate riders get ready to shred into the week

Special thanks to Allen and Daniella of http://www.thephotoboat.com/ for providing low res. copies of so many great images from the complete event. Some of us stuck at work couldn't make it down to Key West until Friday evening, after things had been running for five days. If anyone wants higher res. copies of their images from Photoboat get in touch with them to make arrangements.

Spring Break in Key West and a kiting competition, got spectators? You bet.

Hamish Macdonald hanging on with ..., I'm not sure what! He raced all the way from Ft. Lauderdale to Bimini on a strapless surfboard last year. Magic of surf wax?

Sean throws one

Early football (American) at the collegiate level, 1880 to 1890. Shown here is the "No Helmet" team with nose guards? Maybe they are from France, the Normans were famous for using helmets with nose guards to protect their schnoz. Nope, that can't be it, even 1000 years ago they knew the value of protecting your lid from impacts, uh and your nose.

The "No Helmet" teams faired particularly poorly, lots of injury. The President and major Universities stepped in and got things sorted out with rules and safety gear requirements in 1906.

A shot of a mystery rider going off the slider, sans lid and impact vest! Highly intelligent college guys risking their noggin and ribs hitting sliders without minimal gear? No way, had to have been someone else. This isn't rocket science, look to the past and the future, think about it.

Later on they rigged a kite to this raft and took about as many folks on a cruise down the beach.

The course that Neil Hutchinson with X-RATED KITEBOARDING and Tiki Beach in Ft. Lauderdale constructed ( http://www.xratedkiteboarding.com/ ). Neil is an old hand at boardercross having set up many courses throughout Florida and in other parts of the country. Imagine buying all these hotdogs, carting them all over the state, blowing them up, anchoring them, announcing the event and tearing it all down again, over and over. We owe Neil a big thanks for all his efforts!

Neil Hutchinson on the right with Paul Menta on the left.

Paul Menta also sponsored this groundbreaking collegiate event through The Kitehouse ( http://thekitehouse.com/ ) providing a lot of input, support and capable assistance from Nick. Paul and Neil set out for a record kiteboarding crossing from Key West to Cuba many years ago. It was a very intense 8 + hour session in incredibly adverse wind and wave conditions.

Mike Bradley, riding for GK and the illustrated man, rigs up. His has to be the largest and most detailed kiting portrait tattoo that I have seen anywhere! Insignias come in all types, what follows below is yet another from history.

"The First Wound" from Mark Twain's 1880 "A Tramp Abroad." Heidelberg and Berlin Universities were once the sites of Schlägerplay promoted through Studentenverbindung. Ritual collection of facial scars was the goal. They even rubbed sand into the wounds to accent them. Lots of sand in Key West, uh maybe we'll pass. Wind is on, no need for scars just hard riding.

So many sports and so many starts. There was even a design competition for windsurfing boards shown here. Makes me want to grab a 15 m BOW kite and jump on one!?
From: "Sailboards, Custom-made" by Hans Fichtner 1982

rick, thanks for such a great write up, those pics are sweet, that one with mike hall, alex bl(*&#(@*, and mikey bradley neck and neck in that boarder-x is bad ass, that was energy on the beach at its best, girls were screamin and it was cool to see the true intensity of a boarder-x.
I also wanna give a huge thanks to Neil Hutchinson of x-rated kiteboarding for all his help and vibin up the scene on the beach, his crew's diehard and bigups to all, also paul and nick from the kitehouse, john and steve from watersports west in largo, fl, jim stewart of Arnette sunglasses (their first time sponsoring a kite event), Willie T's Bar on Duval (Welcome Kitesurfers, I Like Sex, their motto for the event) also to Cabrinha, Slingshot, Belleza Pura, GFH Skateboards, Photoboat.com(where u can see all the pics), Eckerd College, and Al Lindsey for supporting the club down in key west and all around st. pete/tampa.

Lastly if anyone is wondering about the hydroponic reggae show by Bermuda's #1 Reggea band check out THE HOMEGROWN BAND. They played the three biggest nights at Willie T-s and will be there for our next big event too. check em out. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...a-42b8f5aa6797

You are welcome, thanks for organizing a fun event! Good to see you folks at K4G '07. Photos and writeup to come on that soon.

I took the high speed ferry from Miami to Key West over the weekend. It is a great way to go. Visited with Paul Menta, went out to the Flats with his speed boards to grab some anticipated pre-frontal strong winds. The winds were fresh, Paul hit 45 mph or so in winds around 20 mph. I maxed out close to 35 mph, the waves make it tough (all 3 to 5 inches of them). The speed boards are a different experience and intriguing to ride. The static electricity started to get intense and sign of lightning to follow as the wind ebbed a bit. The session was scrubbed before the wx got too narly. Photos to follow on the excellent ferry trip, outstanding dinner at Che Pauls' Grand Restaurant, flats session and a look at some out of the way spots on Bone Island.

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